Sarah Ogan Gunning (June 28, 1910 – November 14, 1983) was an American singer and songwriter from the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

country of

eastern Kentucky Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

, as were her older half-sister

Aunt Molly Jackson Aunt Molly Jackson (1880 – September 1, 1960) was an influential American folk singer and a union activist. Her full name was Mary Magdalene Garland Stewart Jackson Stamos. Biography Jackson was one of fifteen children born in Clay County, ...

and her brother Jim Garland. Although she made an appearance in the New York

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

scene of the 1930s, she was overshadowed by her older brother and half-sister. Rediscovered in the 1960s while living in Detroit, she played at folk festivals at Newport in 1964 and the University of Chicago in 1965.

Early life and family

She was born Sarah Elizabeth Garland on June 28, 1910, in

Bell County, Kentucky Bell County is a county located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,097. Its county seat is Pineville and its largest city is Middlesboro. The county was formed in 1867, during th ...

. Her father was coal miner Oliver Perry Garland and her mother Sarah Elizabeth Lucas Garland, his second wife. He had earlier married Deborah Robinson Garland who bore four children, including Mary Magdalene Garland, later better known as

. After Deborah's death, Oliver married Sarah Lucas, and had eleven more children, including Jim Garland and Sarah Ogan Gunning. The children grew up with little formal education but with strong family ties and a rich tradition of songs and stories. In 1925 the fifteen-year-old Sarah fell in love with Andrew Ogan, a twenty-year-old from

Claiborne County, Tennessee Claiborne County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,043. Its county seat is Tazewell and its largest city is Harrogate. History Claiborne County was established on October 29, 18 ...

, who had come to work in the Fox Ridge coal mine in

. They eloped to

Cumberland Gap The Cumberland Gap is a Mountain pass, pass in the Eastern United States, eastern United States through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains and near the tripoint of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. At&n ...

to marry. They had four children, two of whom died of starvation during the Depression. Living conditions were bad in eastern Kentucky by 1931, and many miners responded to the retreat of the

United Mine Workers The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American Labor history of the United States, labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing work ...

by joining the communist-led National Miners Union (NMU). The ensuing violence and controversy pushed many NMU leaders and persons involved in union activity, including Ogan and her half-sister Aunt Molly Jackson, to leave the state. By 1935 the Garlands and the Ogans had moved to New York City, with assistance from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

folklorist Mary Elizabeth Barnicle. In New York, they met many leaders of the folksong revival, including

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...

Huddie Ledbetter Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk standa ...

, and

Earl Robinson Earl Hawley Robinson (July 2, 1910 – July 20, 1991) was an American composer, arranger and folk music singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Robinson is remembered for his music, including the cantata " Ballad for Americans" and songs s ...

. But Andrew Ogan had TB, and when the illness worsened he moved back to Brush Creek in Knox County, Kentucky, where he died in August 1938. Sarah married Joseph Gunning, a skilled metal polisher, in August 1941. After the start of World War II they moved to work in the shipyard in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...

, where her brother Jim Garland had also found work. After the war they moved to

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

."Archie Green on Sarah Ogan Gunning"

Music career

Through contacts she made while living in New York, Sarah Ogan had a dozen of her songs recorded by

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...

in 1937, and Professor Barnicle recorded Sarah singing duets with her brother Jim Garland in 1938 for the Library of Congress. Woody Guthrie wrote a profile of Sarah for the New York ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'' in 1940, and expanded his sketch for his ''American Folksong''. She was also mentioned in the popular ''A Treasury of American Song''. One of the well-known songs she wrote around 1936, "I am a Girl of Constant Sorrow," appeared in a 1953 collection, and was recorded in the 1960s by

Peggy Seeger Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935) is an American Folk music, folk singer and songwriter. She has lived in Britain for more than 60 years and was married to the singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl until his death in 1989. She is a member ...

and

Barbara Dane Barbara Jean Spillman (May 12, 1927 – October 20, 2024), known professionally as Barbara Dane, was an American folk, blues, and jazz singer, guitarist, record producer, and political activist. She co-founded Paredon Records with Irwin Silbe ...

among others. The song is a rewrite of "

Man of Constant Sorrow "Man of Constant Sorrow" (also known as "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow") is a traditional American folk song first published by Dick Burnett, a partially blind fiddler from Kentucky. It was titled "Farewell Song" in a songbook by Burnett dated t ...

" that she remembered from a

hillbilly ''Hillbilly'' is a term historically used for White people who dwell in rural area, rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in the Appalachian region and Ozarks. As people migrated out of the region during the Great Depression, ...

record (likely recorded by Emry Arthur in 1928) she had heard some years before in the mountains, but the lyrics she wrote was considerably different from the original after the first verse. Living in Detroit, Sarah was overlooked in the early stages of the American folk revival in the 1950s. In August 1963 folklorist

Archie Green Archie Green (June 29, 1917 – March 22, 2009) was an American folklorist specializing in laborlore (defined as the special folklore of workers) and American folk music. Devoted to understanding vernacular culture, he gathered and commented ...

visited Sarah in Detroit to follow up interviews he had done with her half-sister Aunt Molly Jackson. Green joined forces with Wayne State University faculty

Ellen Stekert Ellen Stekert (born 1935) is an American academic, folklorist and musician. Stekert is a professor emerita of English at the University of Minnesota and a former president of the American Folklore Society. She has been called "one of the country� ...

and Oscar Paskal to record Sarah in January and March 1964 in the studios of

WDET WDET-FM (101.9 MHz) is a public radio station in Detroit, Michigan. It is owned by Wayne State University with its studios and transmitter in the Cass Corridor neighborhood. WDET broadcasts shows from National Public Radio, Public Radio In ...

and the

United Auto Workers The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and sou ...

Solidarity House. The Detroit sessions provided the selections for her album "Girl of Constant Sorrow," Folk-Legacy FSA-26, issued in 1965. She was encouraged to sing publicly in Professor Stekert's classes and at a conference featuring

Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...

and

Michael Harrington Edward Michael Harrington Jr. (February 24, 1928 – July 31, 1989) was an American democratic socialist. As a writer, he was best known as the author of '' The Other America'' (1962). Harrington was also a political activist, theorist, profess ...

in Detroit in 1964. She sang at the

Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...

in the summer of 1964, and had her most extended performance at the

University of Chicago Folk Festival A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

in January 1965.

Death

Sarah Gunning died during a family gathering in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

on November 14, 1983, and was buried in

Hart, Michigan Hart is a city and county seat of Oceana County, Michigan. The population was 2,126 at the time of the 2010 census. The city is located within Hart Township, but is politically independent. Hart is also home to the north end of the Hart-Monta ...

, where she had lived since the mid-1960s.Judi Jennings, "Gunning, Sarah (Garland) Ogan," in ''The Kentucky Encyclopedia'', ed. John E. Kleber (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1992).

Selected discography

*Sarah Ogan Gunning, ''Girl Of Constant Sorrow'' (

Folk-Legacy Records Folk-Legacy Records was an independent record label specializing in traditional and contemporary folk music of the English-speaking world. It was founded in 1961 by Sandy and Caroline Paton and Lee Baker Haggerty. The label recorded Frank Proffi ...

, 1965)

References

Video documentary

*Mimi Pickering
"Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning, 1910-1983."
Whitesburg, Kentucky: Appalshop, 1988, DVD, 38 minutes.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunning, Sarah Ogan 1910 births 1983 deaths American women singer-songwriters People from Knox County, Kentucky Folk musicians from Kentucky 20th-century American singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Kentucky People from Hart, Michigan Women musicians from Kentucky Singers from Kentucky 20th-century American women singers Singer-songwriters from Michigan